Bergin Inaugurated In Waterbury

Bergin Finds Chair Still Fits In Waterbury Ofice

January 02, 1992|By LYNNE TUOHY; Courant Staff Writer

WATERBURY — Mayor Edward D. "Mike" Bergin returned to office with a vengeance Wednesday, decrying in his inaugural speech the deficits of cash and credibility left the city by his predecessor, Joseph J. Santopietro.

"The financial safeguards failed or, more likely, were deliberately circumvented by the Santopietro administration," Bergin said. "The Santopietro administration consisted of individuals motivated solely by self-interest and greed."

Then the mayor -- who served in that office from 1976 through 1985 -- issued a number of executive orders designed to alleviate the city's financial crisis and to expedite the federal investigation into municipal corruption that led to Santopietro's arrest in September on fraud and embezzlement charges.

Bergin ordered all city employees to cooperate with federal investigators. He also suspended all purchases and hiring, and canceled all consulting contracts with the city. The city has racked up huge budget deficits for the past two years.

Bergin, who pulled the city from the brink of bankruptcy in 1976, predicted Wednesday that Waterbury would end the current budget year $5 million in the red. He also said that hard choices would have to be made and more hardships endured before the city could reverse its downward spiral. But he ended his 18-minute speech on a hopeful note.

"Divided by personal interest, there is nothing we can accomplish," Bergin said. "United by our love of Waterbury, there is nothing we cannot accomplish."

And when the speechmaking was over and the crowds had thinned, Bergin and a small cadre of family and friends crossed Grand Street to the Chase Building, to check out his old office.

"Has anybody got a key?" Bergin bellowed, as he walked toward the heavy wooden doors labeled "Office of the Mayor." He pointed to a bottled-water dispenser inside the office -- a Santopietro addition that can now be found in most city offices -- and said, "$19,000 for those things. Can you believe it?" Their fate? "It's gone," the mayor said.

Bergin, a heavy smoker, cursed the absence of ashtrays and checked the top drawer of the mayor's desk. In it he found two "Bergin '85" campaign pens -- the same ones he had left for Santopietro when Bergin last closed that drawer in December 1985.

For Bergin, 48, the journey back to city hall was much longer, much lonelier, than the three-block parade of supporters he led from Immaculate Conception Church after Mass on Wednesday morning.

His name and political heritage had become synonymous with Democratic politics in Waterbury when he was toppled by Republican political upstart Santopietro in 1985. Santopietro, then 26, credited his victory to malaise in the Bergin administration.

Bergin remained active in Democratic politics as a strategist for a challenge slate, and was planning a fund-raiser to retire the last of his 1985 campaign debts when he was arrested in April 1988 and charged with receiving a bribe. The person who allegedly took the bribe on Begin's behalf -- and the chief witness against Bergin -- was his former administrative aide-turned-political foe, Thomas Gahan.

The charge was thrown out by a trial judge eight months later for lack of evidence, but was reinstated in 1990, after the state Supreme Court ruled that the judge had overreached his authority. Bergin was acquitted last April, after a jury trial.

Bergin went from criminal defendant to candidate almost overnight, securing enough signatures last summer to force a Democratic primary. He prevailed over endorsed candidate Gary Reardon, and his election chances were bolstered by Santopietro's arrest less than six weeks before the election.

The city also rallied around its former favorite son and member of Waterbury's version of a Democratic dynasty. Bergin's father, Edward D. Bergin Sr., died in office in 1971, during his fourth term as mayor. Mike Bergin on Wednesday became the first mayor in the city's history to be sworn in for a sixth term.

Frank Cirillo was among the hundreds who joined Bergin's traditional march from church to city hall Wednesday, and could hardly contain his enthusiasm.

"See all these people?" Cirillo shouted, making a sweeping gesture at the boisterous parade stretching the length of Leavenworth Street. "We worked like hell to make this walk. We believe in this guy."

Bergin clasped hands with his wife, JoAnn, and younger son, Patrick Timothy, 11. JoAnn held the hand of son, Michael, 19, as the family swung arms and joked about keeping in step. Their joy was infectious, as people shouted, "Mike's back!" and "Hey Mayor!"

"They say only in politics is there life after death," JoAnn Bergin quipped. Then she turned serious.

"We were as far down as anybody could go," she said of the emotional and financial strain of fighting the bribery charge. "I think that's why this is so wonderful. It tells everyone -- whether you're having trouble in your business or your marriage or anything at all -- that there is always hope."